Where is Easter at the Easter Egg Hunt?

On Saturday, April 11, we gathered the largest crowd for a single event in the history of our new church ministry. We estimated 350 people participated in the first Easter Egg Hunt at the Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA. We moved ahead with it with a couple of uncertainties: it was still Spring Break for the area schools; it was a first-time event with no prior experience; and several other churches were also doing Egg Hunts that same morning. Who would come?

That question was answered with the stream of children and families coming into the Community Room for face painting (this is simply always popular; high five to the corp of face painters), coloring pages, refreshments, and hugs and pictures with the Easter Bunny. We then moved to the gym to be a crowd and receive guidance on how the three age groups would proceed to their respective areas for staggered start times.

It was a special experience for me to welcome and address the crowd, obviously excited and ready to go outside with baskets or bags to find eggs. And there were a few moments to talk with them about the first word of the event, EASTER. These were my prepared remarks:

Good morning and God bless you. Welcome to the first Easter Egg Hunt at the Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA!

Are you excited to be here? We are excited to host you. You are among friends. I am Pastor Jeff Williams and I get to serve with the White Pines United Methodist Church. I am thankful for the friends I have and we have as White Pines United Methodist Church. The YMCA and White Pines UMC are friends. We do fun things together and this Easter Egg Hunt is the newest and one of the most exciting things we share.

Another exciting thing we do together is the summer Music & Drama Camp. We have registration forms in the Community Room.

I want to introduce you to a friend and the Executive Director of this YMCA, Bev Thiel…(Bev offered words of welcome and instruction)

Today’s Easter Egg Hunt is about finding eggs and feeling excitement. It is fun to look for them, find them, gather them together in a basket or bag, open them and find more good stuff. There are plenty of eggs for everyone. Everybody gets good stuff today.

The first word in today’s event is Easter. And that means we look to the special stories in the Bible about Jesus, who is God’s Son. The stories are about finding, but they are also about losing.

Jesus’ friends are sad because two days before the first Easter they lost Jesus when he died. He died because people killed him on a cross. They could not talk with, learn from, eat with, or go places with him anymore. And they were sad. They did not want to lose such a good friend who taught them so much about God.

On Easter morning some women friends go to his grave to take care of his dead body. And they don’t find him! The grave is empty and they are still sad, but now they are scared. What happened? They can’t find Jesus. One special friend, Mary, is crying. And you know what happens next? JESUS FINDS HER. She knows it is Jesus because he calls her by name, he says, Mary. SAY YOUR NAMES ON 3

Jesus finds his friends on Easter morning and helps them figure out what to do next.

That’s really exciting for Jesus’ friends. Not that they find something, but that they are found.

The excitement you feel right now getting ready to find Easter Eggs is like the excitement Jesus’ friends felt when Jesus, God’s Son, found them.

It is like the excitement God feels about finding us and loving us.

Have a great time this morning. Searching for and finding Easter Eggs. And remember how much God searches for you with love, how Jesus finds you and calls you by name.

Are you ready? Now I read in the program that another friend was supposed to be here to help us, someone called the Easter Bunny. Has anyone seen the Easter Bunny?

"Traces of the Trade" 3/26/09 Screening

I attended the "Traces of the Trade" reception, film screening and discussion on March 26 as part of the WGVU Campaign for Love and Forgiveness and posted this:

Great thanks to Steve Chappell and all involved in offering such a personal and powerful venue for walking further into the reality of racism and the hope of being changed. The prophetic and compassionate spirits expressed differently by Katrina and Paul helped us see the breadth of possible responses.

Coupled with my preaching on forgiveness during Lent using the Love and Forgiveness resources from the Fetzer Institute; the annual Bridges diversity event and dinner in Rockford; the recent Partners for a Racism-Free Community annual event; and an Institute for Healing Racism in December 2007, the daily benefits of white privilege and daily degradation of racism are more evident to me. What is also more evident is the incredible value of seeking community to confront them. I found the question and answer time energetic and chaotic which is what happens when we are deeply affected by a common experience. I agree with the suggestion of having people submit written questions. Hand out the cards as we enter the event so we can write throughout the presentation.

One significant insight I received was in Katrina's sermon at her home church in the movie when she witnessed to the grief that is a foundational part of her journey with her family and the film. Grief and sadness are often covered over by anger which seems to be a more socially acceptable emotion. Yet, I have found when grief is acknowledged, we find more honest energy to confront problems.

I look forward to organizing some kind of next step in the fall in northern Kent County related to "Traces of the Trade" and/or Fetzer's Campaign for Love and Forgiveness. I am grateful for recently meeting both Steve and Rick Wilson, and the opportunities I have had to already work with them.